spelling bee
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of spelling bee
First recorded in 1870–75
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
A lot of them had excelled in school: We talked to a boy that had just won a spelling bee, for example.
From Slate • Mar. 20, 2026
In 1992, Vice President Dan Quayle corrected a 12-year-old spelling bee contestant on camera, incorrectly instructing him to add the letter “e” onto the end of the word “potato.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 11, 2026
Also worth noting: I won my grade-wide spelling bee in first grade by correctly spelling "hamburger."
From Salon • Mar. 8, 2025
Nearly 70% of Indian-born U.S. residents arrived after 2000, according to census data, and that dovetails with the surge in Indian American spelling bee champions.
From Seattle Times • May 25, 2024
“Remember what your dad said to you about fear when you were in the spelling bee? Soheil, too? About how we should be scared, about how we can use that?”
From "Internment" by Samira Ahmed
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
